A San Diego area vet who allegedly allowed
the disposal of 30,000 live birds feels the heat.

Los Angeles Times, Jia-Rui Chong, November 22, 2003

San Diego County's Animal Services Department has filed a
complaint against a veterinarian who allegedly authorized a Valley Center egg
ranch to kill 30,000 hens by dumping them alive into a wood chipper. Reports by
the county, recently obtained by The Times, recount workers at the ranch feeding
squirming birds by the bucket into the pounding machine, then turning the mashed
remains with dirt and heaping the mixture into piles. The complaint centers on
Gregg Cutler, a veterinarian who is also on the animal welfare committee of the
American Veterinary Medical Assn.

Last winter, Cutler attended a meeting of poultry ranchers,
veterinarians and state and federal officials to discuss how farmers should deal
with chickens and other fowl during the outbreak of exotic Newcastle disease.
During the meeting, the group discussed using a wood chipper to destroy birds
that could not be moved because of a quarantine. A few weeks later, in February,
Ward Egg Ranch rented a wood chipper to destroy hens which, though not infected
with the Newcastle disease, had stopped laying eggs. San Diego County
authorities received a complaint about the killing, and operators of the ranch
said they got the idea from Cutler and others at the meeting.

Cutler denies he came up with the idea, but said he doesn't
have a problem with using the machine for that purpose. "No idea was too crazy
to throw out at these meetings," said Cutler. "We were in desperation trying to
deal with this disease." Feeding chickens into a wood chipper, he said, "seemed
like it was instantaneous and there was no suffering…. I personally believe if
it's done properly with correct equipment, it's a humane way of disposing of
birds in an emergency." Cutler said he's being unfairly targeted by animal
welfare activists. In the last three weeks, four national animal advocate groups
have called for his removal from the animal welfare committee.

In the county's report into the incident, Arie Wilgenburg, one
of the ranch owners, is quoted as saying that several veterinarians, including
Cutler, said wood-chipping was an "approved method" to kill hens that were no
longer producing eggs. An egg ranch manager, Ken Iriye, told officials that the
ranch preferred using the wood chipper to the usual methods of gassing by
carbon-dioxide or snapping chickens' necks because it was "less traumatizing."
He said it was easier for the staff to "cram the chickens in a chute than to
chase them around and break their necks."

The report says that Cutler acknowledged supervising the mass
euthanasia over the phone. County Animal Services Lt. Mary Kay Gagliardo said
Cutler also told her that he believed using a wood chipper was humane. Gagliardo
wrote: "I then asked him if he felt it was still humane if they were going in
there bunches at a time, being plugged up in the chute, not knowing if they were
going into the shredder feet first, breast first, if he still considered that a
humane death, and he said to me, 'Yes, of course. However they go in, it's
quick, it's painless, and it's over in seconds.' "

Cutler denies saying this and claims there are numerous
inaccuracies in the report.

Wilgenburg, one of the ranch's owners, said that since
February he has received about 100 pieces of hate mail and several threatening
phone calls in the middle of the night. The sale of part of the ranch to Cebe
Farms, which raises poultry for eating, was held up for several months because
of the public outcry, Wilgenburg said. If he had to do it again, he said, he
would have gassed the chickens instead of sending them through a chipper.
"Still, gassing is worse than the wood chipper…. It takes slightly longer or the
chicken to die."

In filing the complaint against Cutler, the county asked the
state Department of Consumer Affairs to investigate the incident further and
determine if punishment was warranted. A state veterinary board spokeswoman said
the agency does not comment on filed complaints. Generally, if the veterinary
board believes a violation has occurred, the case is taken to the state attorney
general's office, said Gina Bayliss, the board's enforcement director. The
attorney general may present it to an administrative law judge, who can put a
veterinarian on probation or suspend or revoke his license.

In April, the San Dego district attorney's office investigated
whether the egg ranch had committed animal cruelty. Elisabeth Silva, the deputy
district attorney assigned to the case, said that she could not find criminal
intent on the part of the owners, concluding that the Wilgenburgs were just
following professional advice. Silva's office declined to file a case. Animal
welfare groups protested. Silva investigated further, but again declined to file
a case against the Wilgenburgs.

Animal interest groups continue to protest Cutler's fitness to
practice avian medicine. Karen Davis, president of the Machipongo, Va.-based
United Poultry Concerns, has been circulating the San Diego County documents and
vowed that animal groups would continue to nettle the American Veterinary
Medical Assn. until it removed Cutler from the animal welfare committee.

In response to the outcry, the veterinary association has
publicly condemned throwing live chickens into a wood chipper. Spokeswoman Gail
Golab said they are pursuing "standard procedures to investigate allegations
against members," but would not divulge details. Other poultry experts may have
also authorized the wood-chipping, the animal welfare groups acknowledged, but
they said they focused on Cutler because of his committee membership. "This is
not just anybody," said Wayne Pacelle, spokesman for the Humane Society of the
United States. "This is a guy on the animal welfare committee of the

most prominent animal veterinary group in the country. That
does not inspire confidence in any declaration from such a committee."